By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar┃Posted: october 03, 2018
Whenever there’s victory, it’s due to grace. Whether it’s victory in sports or a lottery, in studies or competition or politics – all of it happens through grace alone.
When a person forgets that and gets into ego, it results in their downfall. So always remember that whenever and wherever there’s victory, it’s through grace.
Defining grace
There’s a commonly-used phrase – “God's grace.” What does this mean?
Whenever you achieve something very significant that felt like it was beyond your capacity, which came to you not by your doing alone, that’s grace. You feel, “I’m not capable or qualified for this, yet I got this.”
When you recognize the grace in your life, you feel very grateful, because you feel you have received things although you weren’t worthy. This is the language of a wise person. A wise person never says, "Oh, I earned it. This is my right.” When you think you’re getting what you got because of your efforts and therefore your right – there’s no gratitude. Gratefulness is when you feel grace bestowed it on you, as a gift. That brings gratefulness.
What causes grace?
Grace is causeless and unmerited. You don’t obtain it through some merit or cause. Grace arrives without any conditions.
It’s not that only after doing something you will receive grace. If so, then that’s not grace – that’s business. You are blessed with grace just like that – without any conditions whatsoever. Grace is always there, just become aware of it and know that you’re being showered with grace.
Grace is something that can go inside even a closed purse. You don’t need to pay money to receive grace. And if someone tells you that grace will come to you only by opening your purse and giving money, then know that’s wrong for sure. God always blesses you in abundance. You needn’t pay money for it.
How do I attract more grace?
You can attract more grace through these two avenues, gratitude and a larger capacity:
- Gratitude--The more grateful we become, the more we experience grace. A mind that complains all the time cannot experience grace. But one who is thankful and contented experiences more grace in life.
- Larger capacity--We say that we want blessings and grace. Blessings are available in plenty, but if your vessel is small, then what should you do?
If you take a tea cup and say, “Give me two liters of milk in this,” how can two liters of milk fit in the little cup? The cup is small and you’re asking for too much. You need to bring a vessel that holds three liters and then I’ll give you two or three liters as you wish.
So, you must remember your capacity, and if you want to get more, you must expand it. When your capacity increases, more will definitely come to you.
How do I expand my capacity to receive more grace?
This is what you must focus on for expansion of your ability to receive grace. By enhancing these virtues, your blessings will increase:
- Just having the intention to increase one’s capacity does half the job.
- Be natural, simple, and humble. Humility naturally increases one’s capacity.
- Meditation, spiritual practices, service to society, and knowledge increase one’s capacity.
- The Six Wealths or Six-fold Virtues
- Calmness of mind
- Self-control or restraint of the senses
- Forbearance- enduring patiently that which you do not like
- Faith in the unknown
- Enthusiasm- finding joy in everything you do
- Contentment- creativity and relaxation
When you receive a lot without making efforts, you’re blessed with grace.
Usually you work hard at your job and then receive payment. So you say, ‘I have earned my money.’ But if someone gives you a gift, you don’t say, ‘I have earned these gifts.’ Can something that’s earned be a gift? No. You receive gifts without any effort. So when you receive a great gift or an award that you feel you didn’t deserve, that’s called grace.
A grateful person never experiences lack.
Who experiences a lack in life? One who thinks, ‘I’m so capable yet I get nothing.’ Being grateful means all your complaints in life simply disappear.
When you feel in your heart that you’ve always received more than you asked for, or more than you deserved, then deep gratitude arises in you.
When there’s gratitude, there’ll never be a lack of anything in life. For such a person, whatever he wishes will keep getting fulfilled.
Now you might say that this is quite difficult. Yes, it’s difficult. It’s never easy to achieve something. But when you take one step towards this, you’ll find that it’s very easy.
An invisible or unknown influence
Astrological horoscopes are probably 80%-90% correct. And there’s always an invisible or unknown influence that can affect events anytime, and that’s called grace. Grace has the ability to change anything at any time.
For instance, a boy was born and his father went to an astrologer for the boy’s horoscope. The astrologer said, “Your son is very great. There will be many cars around him all the time, and he’ll have the ability to stop anybody, any time.”
So the parents thought their son would become a big minister, or the president, and he’d be surrounded by a fleet of cars. But he became a policeman. Today, of course, there are traffic lights, but many years ago there were only policemen who directed traffic.
The father fought with the astrologer, “You told me that my son will be surrounded by a fleet of cars, but he has become a policeman.”
The astrologer said, “See my prediction has come true, even now. He’s a traffic policeman and surrounded by many cars.”
Another astrologer said to someone, “You’ll be hit by a bullet in your head.” But instead one day, the person was wearing a big hat and something hit the hat and took it away.
So there’s a saying, 'What came to my head went off with my hat.’ In other words, a big trouble which would have come, by grace went away in a small way. So here the scripture is also proved right. At the same time, being in the right place at the right time is also a factor.
